Want some feedback from old Sierra Civil War Generals 2 fans

[CigarandCoffee]

People who have played Sierra's Civil War Generals 2 know that this is the standard in Civil War games. If you have played both, how does this game compare?

[turkey2002]

That's the first game I was reminded of when I played this. (Others include Take Command: Manassas, and Scourge of War)

It turns CWG2 from turn-based to real time battles, with all the micro and tension that comes from that. You still have time deadlines as a factor vs. number of turns for Decisive Victory, etc.

Officers could get KIA or WIA. (I don't remember if CWG2 had this)

No "war progress" or impact to the overall War the way CWG2 had. Here, it is more like a "survival mode" or "story mode" -- you are a field general, and it's up to you how you participate in the battles in the war. If you can survive them and flourish (grow your army), you can see as many battles as available up to the end of the war, but you don't actually have any impact on the War per se. Even if you win decisively all of your early battles, you won't be fast-forwarded to the end of the war, like in CWG2.

CWG2 had "branching" scenarios that followed specific sequences, and you could miss some battles if you do very well and advance the war too fast, if I recall correctly. In this game, campaign progress is gate-locked by "Grand Battles", and there are "Minor Battles" you can play to earn rewards before completing a Grand Battle.

As per above, no continuity of troops on the enemy side from scenario to scenario. You could annihilate the Army of the Potomac in one battle, but they will come back at full strength in the next scenario. There is continuity from Phase to Phase within each battle, though.

Scenarios are also heavily scripted, but there is an enemy troop scaling that happens in each scenario.

No moddability yet, but I thought I heard they plan to make it moddable (?)

My favorite part is you can create your own fictional character to "play as" and develop meta army management skills; you have to be a good general both on the field and off the field.

If I recall correctly, CWG-2 at best, you could mod your unit names. Here you can just straight up rename your units.

Many things are very similar:
- units gain xp/veterancy; but so do commanders, separately, allowing you switch out commanders, etc.
- there are several skills associated with each unit (e.g. accuracy, command, efficiency, stamina, morale, etc.) that can be improved with battle participation
- There is an economy (money, recruits, reputation as currency) and rewards after battle from field performance and enemy/friendly loot
- wide variety of historical weapons
- each scenario is meticulously crafted, with historical terrain, scripted events, Orders of Battle, and troop deployments/maneuvers
- varying difficulty level settings (Easy/Colonel, Normal/Brigadier General, Hard/Major General), which affect player economy and enemy troop %

If you're on the fence, I recommend checking out the many available youtube videos, etc. to see the gameplay for yourself.

Bottom line: Unless you have an aversion to real-time instead of turn-based gaming, if you liked CWG2, I would strongly recommend this title.

[Temujin]

Hey, what's the full name of the game you're talking about? I've never played it, and I'm considering trying to find a copy.

[turkey2002]

"Civil War Generals 2", it's an oldie but classic from good old Sierra released in 1997. Not sure if it's ok to post links/ads to other games here, but you should be able to find it via Google available for free as Abandonware.

I forgot to mention CWG2 had a campaign/scenario editor too, and even multiplayer over Kali.